Blue-spot jawfish keepers, please post
- Thread starter Angel*Fish
- Start date
Treating Blue spot jawfish for disease
Treating Blue spot jawfish for disease
I have some information for the folks that are having the disease showing up in blue spots. I have 2 of them and one recently became lethargic and stopped eating. It began showing signs of whitening on most of its body. Labored breathing as well. I promptly moved it to a hospital tank and started thinking about a course of action. First, I did a 15 minute freshwater dip. It didn't show much sign of stress, so that was promising. Next, I lowered the sp. gravity down to about 1.015 to reduce stress on the fish a bit. This may or may not really matter, but it is what i did. Next, I began treating with erythromycin and 1 dose of Maroxy for possible fungus. I continued this treatment for 2 days(maroxy for only the 1 day). The fish continued to not eat and just remain lethargic. It continued having labored breathing the entire time. On the third day, I assumed the erythromycin wasn't working, so I began with marycin two. After 8 hours in maracyn 2, the fish has built a small burrow with some crushed coral I placed in the tank. He seems alert and has began eating readily. This is certainly a good sign, but it is still up in the air. I am debating what to do next. He still seems to have labored breathing, so I am wondering if a second freshwater dip or maybe a formalin dip would be appropriate. My rationale is that maybe the doses of antibiotics (for gram positive and gram negative) has began working on the possible secondary bacterial infections, but maybe a primary problem is parasitic. I am up for suggestions if anyone has any information on the subject. I will share my experiences as time goes on. I am determined to find out what is going on here. If the fish does end up dying, I plan to do a full autopsy and work up. I do bio research with mice, so all the tools are at my disposal. Any suggestions on what to look for would also be helpful if anyone has any info. I am particularly interested in what everyone thinks should be done next.
Thanks in advance for any advice/guidance.
Treating Blue spot jawfish for disease
I have some information for the folks that are having the disease showing up in blue spots. I have 2 of them and one recently became lethargic and stopped eating. It began showing signs of whitening on most of its body. Labored breathing as well. I promptly moved it to a hospital tank and started thinking about a course of action. First, I did a 15 minute freshwater dip. It didn't show much sign of stress, so that was promising. Next, I lowered the sp. gravity down to about 1.015 to reduce stress on the fish a bit. This may or may not really matter, but it is what i did. Next, I began treating with erythromycin and 1 dose of Maroxy for possible fungus. I continued this treatment for 2 days(maroxy for only the 1 day). The fish continued to not eat and just remain lethargic. It continued having labored breathing the entire time. On the third day, I assumed the erythromycin wasn't working, so I began with marycin two. After 8 hours in maracyn 2, the fish has built a small burrow with some crushed coral I placed in the tank. He seems alert and has began eating readily. This is certainly a good sign, but it is still up in the air. I am debating what to do next. He still seems to have labored breathing, so I am wondering if a second freshwater dip or maybe a formalin dip would be appropriate. My rationale is that maybe the doses of antibiotics (for gram positive and gram negative) has began working on the possible secondary bacterial infections, but maybe a primary problem is parasitic. I am up for suggestions if anyone has any information on the subject. I will share my experiences as time goes on. I am determined to find out what is going on here. If the fish does end up dying, I plan to do a full autopsy and work up. I do bio research with mice, so all the tools are at my disposal. Any suggestions on what to look for would also be helpful if anyone has any info. I am particularly interested in what everyone thinks should be done next.
Thanks in advance for any advice/guidance.
djangoboots
New member
It is amazing how long this thread has been going for. Anyother updates? For those of you who unfortunatly have lost you bsj, just wondering, were they QT before going into your main tank. I do not have one, but would love to though I think I will wait on this.
I've gone through two of these guys, both succumbing to the same disease everyone has been referring to. The first one was quarantined and was in perfect health for a couple months. He died during a system crash facilitated by regal tang with ich. While everyone else contracted ich, he instead started to get white patches on his skin but there were no behavioral changes. One day he just dissappeared, I assume he died and the hermits took care of him. The second one died within 48 hours in the qt tank of the same disease. I think i'm done with these fish for awhile.
Angel*Fish
cats and large squashes
I never thought I would - but I'm trying again - will keep a diary
This fish looks to me to be completely healthy - he doesn't have one bit of white anywhere on his body or other evidence of scale loss - totally an impulse purchase
This fish looks to me to be completely healthy - he doesn't have one bit of white anywhere on his body or other evidence of scale loss - totally an impulse purchase
Angel*Fish
cats and large squashes
A LFS in Houston - they've been showing up all over town here for the last month or so
ChrisPrusha
Premium Member
I wish you much luck, Angel*Fish. 
Angel*Fish
cats and large squashes
Thanks, Chris
angelsil
New member
I'll bump this thread to add my experience. I bought a Blue-spotted jaw about a month ago. He was the only inhabitant in the tank besides a skunk clown for a few weeks. About 2 weeks later I added a firefish. So no aggressive tank mates. The sand bed ranges from 3-5" and we have a 46 bow with well-established rock and good parameters.
The LFS had treated the jaw for fungal disease before we got him. According to them it is common for the jaws to come in with it. We took the jaw home and for the first week or so everything was copasetic. He set up his burrow and would peek his head up over the rocks to watch the goings on in the room (office) where the tank is located. He has a great personality and we became very attached. After about 10 days I started to notice a few white marks on his side. I figured he had scraped himself on some rocks (my gramma does this at times) and wasn't too worried as his eating and behavior were normal.
About 2 weeks in he became more reclusive and harder to find but was still eating normally. The white spots stayed but didn't seem to grow markedly. So, again, I didn't panic. Because he's often in his burrow it was very hard to get a good look at his condition. Then, on Tuesday of this week, he went missing. We didn't see him again until Thursday when I found him out on the sand breathing heavily and looking awful. A quick trip to the LFS and we were advised to treat him in QT with Nitrofurozan and Formalin.
He went into our hospital tank Thursday night after we had to literally rip out every rock in the 46 to get him. I didn't think he was going to make it through the day yesterday. Extremely heavy gilling; no reponse to stimulus; and white patches everywhere. He looked 'shredded'. So far, he is putting up a good fight and is still with us as of now. We're doing 90% water changes every day using water from our 125 and adding the medicines. He's not eating yet but he seems a bit more responsive and goes through fits of gilling heavy and then seems to breathe a bit more normally.
I hope he makes it but if he doesn't I'm not buying another of these fish. It seems they're not suitable for captivity. I'm also afraid that if we do get him healthy, putting him back into the main system will cause him to relapse as many have seen here.
The LFS had treated the jaw for fungal disease before we got him. According to them it is common for the jaws to come in with it. We took the jaw home and for the first week or so everything was copasetic. He set up his burrow and would peek his head up over the rocks to watch the goings on in the room (office) where the tank is located. He has a great personality and we became very attached. After about 10 days I started to notice a few white marks on his side. I figured he had scraped himself on some rocks (my gramma does this at times) and wasn't too worried as his eating and behavior were normal.
About 2 weeks in he became more reclusive and harder to find but was still eating normally. The white spots stayed but didn't seem to grow markedly. So, again, I didn't panic. Because he's often in his burrow it was very hard to get a good look at his condition. Then, on Tuesday of this week, he went missing. We didn't see him again until Thursday when I found him out on the sand breathing heavily and looking awful. A quick trip to the LFS and we were advised to treat him in QT with Nitrofurozan and Formalin.
He went into our hospital tank Thursday night after we had to literally rip out every rock in the 46 to get him. I didn't think he was going to make it through the day yesterday. Extremely heavy gilling; no reponse to stimulus; and white patches everywhere. He looked 'shredded'. So far, he is putting up a good fight and is still with us as of now. We're doing 90% water changes every day using water from our 125 and adding the medicines. He's not eating yet but he seems a bit more responsive and goes through fits of gilling heavy and then seems to breathe a bit more normally.
I hope he makes it but if he doesn't I'm not buying another of these fish. It seems they're not suitable for captivity. I'm also afraid that if we do get him healthy, putting him back into the main system will cause him to relapse as many have seen here.
Angel*Fish
cats and large squashes
Zemeron on another thread has brought up the issue of temperature I've read this too -- anybody know???http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=8897823#post8897823
therealw00
Coral Gardener
I may be mixing up things I read in different places because it has been a while, but I remember reading a couple of pages in a book that gave some very good information on BSJ, if I can dig up the book. If anyone has it the book is called A fascination for Fish by David Powell, David has a lot of collecting experience with the fish of Baja California.
I believe the short of it was that they were historically collected by the local fisherman with barbless hooks, you stick the hook in their hole and they go to remove it from their hole because it is "trash" and they get hooked. They are now collected differently by different people and their slime coat is easily damaged if they are mishandled which can lead to fungal and bacterial infections that many hobbyists experience after acquisition.
My instinct would be to guess 60's is is probably getting on the lower side and 70's is probably more accurate for most of the year, but I have never been to the area where they are found in the wild.
I believe the short of it was that they were historically collected by the local fisherman with barbless hooks, you stick the hook in their hole and they go to remove it from their hole because it is "trash" and they get hooked. They are now collected differently by different people and their slime coat is easily damaged if they are mishandled which can lead to fungal and bacterial infections that many hobbyists experience after acquisition.
My instinct would be to guess 60's is is probably getting on the lower side and 70's is probably more accurate for most of the year, but I have never been to the area where they are found in the wild.
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